The Lilting Melody
by xnitax
Summary: She played and sang beautifully through the rest of the song. Her fingers were skillfully touching the keys and at such a fast pace it left you wondering if she even touched the keys at all. Her voice lulled so nimbly against the lower, contrasting tones


**The Lilting Melody  
  
By: Anita T******* a.k.a. xnitax**  
  
  
  


"Spend all your time waiting  
  
For that second chance  
  
For a break that would make it okay  
  
There's always one reason  
  
To feel not good enough  
  
And it's hard at the end of the day"   
  


- Angel by Sarah McLachlan  
  
  
  
**Teaser-type-commercial-thing**  
  
Riley, to Arnold she's the epitome of perfection, to the girls; she's the devil in disguise. With the talent show coming up, Riley might need Arnold's help, but with Helga scheming, will she get it? Join the Hey Arnold gang and a few newcomers in their freshman year at Hillwood Central High School.   
  
  
  
Riley Sangtsu (sang-soo) is an exchange student new to HCHS. She's Japanese, but she speaks English as if it was her native language. She's a threat to Helga because she's caught Arnold's ever watchful eye. She can sing and dance and play the piano, and what's more? She's gorgeous. Is she really the beast the girls make her out to be? Who will get the guy, Helga or Riley?  
  
  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hey Arnold! I am also not profiting from the posting of this chapter. All ideas and other created characters unbeknownst to the HA! show are all copyrighted to me. I do not own the song "Every Heart" by BoA.  
  
  
  
**Author's Nook**: Okay, this is my one and only Hey Arnold! story that I will possibly complete. It's my distraction. Please review even if it's constructive criticism or a flamer. It might seem that it might go OOC/A or H/A and it might flip flop and I might let you decide who you want to be with who. BTW, if I get six reviews for this, I'll update on a weekly or biweekly basis. The song is a J-pop song by BoA so that's why its in a different language and it might look foreign to you. ^^ So on with the chapter.   
  
**Chapter 1: The Audition**  
  
  
  
The audition waiting room was filled with all kinds of people warming up. There were comedians, juggles, ventriloquists, dancers, and singers each warming up in their own way. Some were stretching, singing scales, and even one girl was praying. The hustle and bustle of the room was enough for the most confident and egotistical person's knees to go weak. In other words, everyone was so nervous that it would make you nervous too.   
  
Alone in the corner of the room was a chocolate haired girl as calm as the waters of Rex's pond. She awaited Mrs. Jenkins, the woman behind all the auditions for the talent show, to call her name.   
  
Suddenly the curtain flew open from the left side of the room and a hush fell over all the talent show wannabees. Mrs. Jenkins apparently wasn't satisfied with all the audition hopefuls so far by the disgusted look on her face. Pulling up her coke bottle glasses that hung around her neck by a thin strap, she read her clipboard. Loudly, she shouted, "Riley Sang-zoo!?" All the other people looked around the room puzzled. Who was this "Riley Sang-zoo"? Why hadn't they heard of her before?   
  
Slowly, Riley rose to her feet and timidly walked towards Mrs. Jenkins. There were no shouts of encouragement as there usually would have been with other performers.   
  
Mrs. Jenkins looked down at Riley with a look of superiority and asked, "Would you like to perform with the curtain open or closed?"  
  
"Open, I like an audience." Riley sat down to the piano and noticed there wasn't a mic.  
  
"Mrs. Jenkins? I need a mic…"  
  
"Oh, a double whammy, eh? Singing and playing the piano, risqué one aren't you?"   
  
The people in the audition room had gotten settled while Riley was flexing her fingers and studying the piano, most likely to get into her chain of concentration. She scratched the back of her head and turned towards her audience, "I haven't really had much practice with this song, I just wrote it, and I originally planned to play a whole different song. But here goes…" With that her fingers flew to the piano keys like fire to gasoline. She started out with a few bars of soft melody, after the fifth bar she came in with the first verse of the song.  
  
  
  


"Ikutsu namida o nagashitara  
  
Every heart sunao ni nareru darou  
  
Dare ni omoi tsutaetara  
  
Every heart kokoro mita sareru no darou"  


  
  
  
"Arnold, man she's hot, and her voice is so angelic," Gerald whispered to his best buddy.  
  
"Shh," Arnold seemed to be in a daze while watching her.   
  
  
  


"Nagai, nagai yoru ni obieteita  
  
Tooi hoshi ni inotteta  
  
Meguru, meguru toki no naka de  
  
Bokutachi wa ai o sagashiteiru  
  
Tsuyoku, tsuyoku naritai kara  
  
Kyou mo takaisora miageteiru"  


  
  
  
Her fingers sprawled over the keyboard once again and she turned towards the direction where Arnold and Gerald were sitting. She seemed to be concentrating on a very hard spot of the song because her tongue was sticking out while she was playing. Arnold pointed to her and nudged Gerald, "Did she just wink at me?"  
  
"Maybe it's your imagination man, she's too wrapped up in this song to even notice you." But Arnold was too mesmerized to hear him.   
  
  
  


"Osanai kioku no kata sumi ni  
  
Atatakai basho ga aru soushi  
  
Hoshi tachi ga hanasu mirai ga  
  
Itsumo kagayaite ita so shine"  


  
  
  
She played and sang beautifully through the rest of the song. Her fingers were skillfully touching the keys and at such a fast pace it left you wondering if she even touched the keys at all. Her voice lulled so nimbly against the lower, contrasting tones of the piano. As she neared the end of her song she slowly backed away from playing the piano and sang the last notes a cappella hitting a high c on the ending note. When her performance was finished no one dared clap or speak for they might interrupt the calming silence that filled the two rooms.   
  
  
  
Riley stood up unfazed and blushed at her crowd. She finally broke the silence with a question.  
  
"Was I really that bad?" No one answered her.  
  
"N-no, of course you weren't" stuttered a small voice as cheers of encouragement and praise erupted from the audition hope-ees.   


* * *

"Pheebs, that girl is a big showoff. Maybe ol' Betsy here might show her a thing or two," said a disgusted Helga.  
  
"Helga, honestly, she was terrific and you know it. Maybe she's shy because she's a foreign exchange student. I know I was shy and I—"  
  
"Ah-ah-ah Pheebs, I don't want to hear about that time. That semester was hell without you." Phoebe held up her hands in defense.  
  
"I'm just saying. Anyways, you know she was great. You can dance really well maybe you should use that old routine that you made up when we were kids."   
  
"I can't believe you even brought that up! I mean c'mon, I like felt my jaw literally drop. Besides, if I was where am I going to find my mix tape?"   
  
A slow smile crept across Phoebe's delicate face as she extracted a small tape from the bottom of her purse. "I brought it along just in case you would say yes. So here's your tape, you know the routine, go ahead and try out."  
  
"Oh my god, Phoebe, all I remember is 'Step-step-pivot-turn-step-swish-slide-step'. How am I going to perform it?"  
  
"Helga, once you get going, you know it's going to come flooding back to you."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Would you shut up if I went? Sheesh, sometimes you act like such a three-year old." Phoebe smirked.  
  
"It worked didn't it?"   



End file.
